Cloze enough? Hemodynamic effects of predictive processing during natural reading
Sarah Schuster,
Nicole Alexandra Himmelstoss,
Florian Hutzler,
Fabio Richlan,
Martin Kronbichler,
Stefan Hawelka
Affiliations
Sarah Schuster
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Nicole Alexandra Himmelstoss
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Florian Hutzler
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria; Corresponding author.
Fabio Richlan
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Martin Kronbichler
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria; Neuroscience Institute and Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler Clinic, Paracelsus Private Medical University, Ignaz-Harrer-Str. 79, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Stefan Hawelka
Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Evidence accrues that readers form multiple hypotheses about upcoming words. The present study investigated the hemodynamic effects of predictive processing during natural reading by means of combining fMRI and eye movement recordings. In particular, we investigated the neural and behavioral correlates of precision-weighted prediction errors, which are thought to be indicative of subsequent belief updating. Participants silently read sentences in which we manipulated the cloze probability and the semantic congruency of the final word that served as an index for precision and prediction error respectively. With respect to the neural correlates, our findings indicate an enhanced activation within the left inferior frontal and middle temporal gyrus suggesting an effect of precision on prediction update in higher (lexico-)semantic levels. Despite being evident at the neural level, we did not observe any evidence that this mechanism resulted in disproportionate reading times on participants' eye movements. The results speak against discrete predictions, but favor the notion that multiple words are activated in parallel during reading.
